Small change amnesty

[mormess]

Apparently Britons stashed or threw away �133bn in small change in 2005. Does this affect the economy and if everyone banked their small change in these credit crunch times would it help? Or am I being daft?

[squarebear]

Unless my maths are wrong, I make it that every man woman and child in the UK threw away approximately �2300 each?!

I find this rather hard to believe. Where did you get your figures from?

[mormess]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7522426.st m

"in 2005, Britons discarded or stashed away �133m in unwanted coppers, according to Virgin Money. "

Whoops, I meant million! sorry! But still, that's a lot isn't it?

Wouldn't it be better in bank accounts?

[Oneeyedvic]

Which is �2.30 per person

[mormess]

okay, i'm not so good with numbers. it just seemed like a lot at the time.

<goes and sits in the corner with dunce's hat on.>

[buildersmate]

........ and I'll wager most of the �2.30 was stashed temporarily, not thrown away - piggy banks, little boxes in the corner of the cupboard. It doesn't take much imagination.
Must have been another slow day for news yesterday - need to fill the column inches with something.

[burston]

I think people sometimes drop money and cant be bothered to pick it up if its odd pennies (although Im sure kids would if they saw it ) I remember a piece in the local paper a man picked up �1.30 in the streets around the town in one week

[Tom Braider]

Money - ie notes and coins - that is taken out of circulation amounts to a gift to the issuing bank of the face value of that money. If it is put back into circulation, as happens when you either spend it or bank it, then the bank once again has to guarantee the face value. To destroy or permanently hoard notes and coins actually has a (small) counter-inflationary effect; to return that money to the general supply has a (small) inflationary effect. But inflation can be good: in times of slow growth or recession, there is not enough buying power to consume the goods and services produced by the national economy. Anything that enables more consumption will, in theory, have a beneficial effect - if you like the capitalist system, that is.

[mormess]

Thanks all, and especially Tom - that really answers my question! Just thinking of a friend who collects �2 coins and wondering...